off the fiscal cliff. this is "special report." ♪ ♪ >> bret: good evening. i'm bret baier. is it a negotiating ploy or really what president obama beliefs can happen? the president may be going down a new path tonight in deficit reduction efforts. it's a path that is sure to lead to many obstacles from the other side. chief white house correspondent ed henry has the new developments in a time sensitive story. >> in a dramatic move today, president obama seemed to be trying to split the budget talks to two pieces. suggesting he and lawmakers come up with spending cuts next year after they avoid the fiscal cliff, by extending middle class tax cuts and raising taxes on the rich. >> it would give us more time than next year to work together. on a comprehensive plan to bring down the deficit, streamline our tax system. do in a balanced way. >> the president apparent shift away from spending and tax altogether now in a big deal could increase the chances of a market rattling fall off the cliff. since the republicans want spending cuts included. >> republicans are willing to put

away from the fiscal cliff. we have fox team coverage. chief washington correspondent james rosen is at the white house to tell us about the president's return to the campaign trail sort of. but we begin with the chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel and another reason that the talk reconciliation so important. good evening, mike. >> good evening. there are strong suggestions that the nation's debt problem may be worse than $16 trillion and counting and key lawmakers are saying it's time to slash spending. >> i can cut $600 billion more out of the federal government tomorrow. nobody would know a difference except for the people employed by the programs here in washington, d.c. >> when asked by fox what he would be willing to cut, the senate majority leader didn't offer anything new. >> remember, we have already done more than $1 billion worth of cuts. we have done that. so we need to get some credit for that. and the negotiations that take place. >> 42 business organizations sent this letter to top lawmakers urging congress not to increase taxes writing, "we strongly urge

. >> in the scramble to avoid the fiscal cliff, both the president's plan to raise taxes on the wealthy and the republican willingness for revenues could end up hurting charities and rely on the kindness of people with money. >> high income people tend to give very generous gifts. they may give a million dollar contribution to a capital campaign of a local hospital or a local art museum and a small number of donors at the high end that account for really big chunk of the charitable giving in this country and those are the folks that we'd be most impacted by this tax policy change. >> in fact, united way gives 15% of total donations, 500 million dollars a year, from those who give $10,000 or more. so, charities worry that any kind of tax increase on the wealthy could cut into their donations and that money from the wealthy would go to the government in taxes, instead of the charities as donations. >> yes, they aren't taxed on that income, then they're able to give all of that income to charities and nonprofits, back to their communities. >> after all, people have to pay their mortgages a

anything to avoid it. i'm referring to the so-called fiscal cliff. you may have heard about it. it's the simultaneous convergence of tax increases and spending cuts designed to pressure lawmakers accepting other negotiated deficit reduction changes. it includes expiration of the bush era tax cuts that would effect everyone. expiration of the tax cut around for years can be called a tax increase. the nonpartisan budget office would bring in $1 trillion in ten years. on tap, 1.2 trillion in spending cuts for ten years. $100 billion in first year. half to defense programs. half to nondefense. cbo says going off the cliff would lead to a recession next year. we have fox team coverage tonight. ed henry is trying to read tea leaves on a day of mixed signals from all sides but we begin with mike emanuel on the possibility that g.o.p. lawmakers may put their oath of office above a promise to antitax increase organizer. good evening. >> good evening. the republican sources say they are offering a balanced approach of significant spending cuts and some revenue without boosting tax rates. >>

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